This invention relates generally to displaying information on a passive storage medium.
The use of passive storage media, such as diskettes, flash cartridges, and the like, is becoming popular in a variety of applications. For example, digital cameras and music players, such as Moving Picture Experts Group-1 Audio Layer-3 (MP3) players, routinely employ passive storage media to store images or music.
The popularity of passive storage media may be, in part, due to their relatively inexpensive cost, light-weight, reliability, and small-size. Additionally, the passive storage media offer portability to users, who may readily exchange music or pictures with each other.
It is not uncommon for a user to have a collection of passive storage media that may, for example, contain pictures taken from a camera, data files provided by a computer, music files recorded by a music player, and the like. In several instances, the user may not know the contents or the available storage capacity of the passive storage media. As such, to learn about the contents or the available storage space, the user is sometimes inconvenienced by having to use accessing devices, such as cameras, computers, and music players, to access the desired information of the passive storage medium.
Additionally, a user may sometimes be burdened with having to manually identify a particular passive storage medium, usually using conventional labels. That is, the user may write pertinent information identifying the passive storage medium and then affix the label to the storage device. In other instances, the user may transcribe the amount of available space on the label, and then update the label, as more or less information is stored on the passive storage medium.
Manually transcribing information on the label, however, may not only be inconvenient but also lead to erroneous labeling. For example, the user may be inconvenienced with having to carry a writing instrument to label the passive storage medium. The writing instrument, in some instances, may not always be readily available. While labeling, it may be possible that a user may incorrectly label the passive storage medium because of lack of concentration or momentary distraction.
Thus, there is a need to reliably display information on the passive storage medium.